This proposal is a competing continuation of our ongoing training program in the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease, first funded in 1984. The proposed program will admit two predoctoral and three postdoctoral trainees who will obtain an advanced degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health and who will work intensively with experienced cardiovascular epidemiologists and methodologists within the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Training will include three formal components: (1) Coursework leading to a master's or doctoral degree in epidemiology or public health, as appropriate given training and career goals. Areas of concentration include epidemiology, biostatistics, outcomes research, analytic study design, and prevention. (2) Required coursework in cardiovascular epidemiology and strongly recommended coursework in molecular and genetic epidemiology, as well as seminars on substantive areas and methodologic issues relevant to cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention. (3) Intensive research activities, in which each trainee will collaborate with one or more established mentors on a number of projects to gain experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of cardiovascular epidemiology research leading to publication in peer-reviewed journals. Research activities will leverage the many large-scale epidemiologic studies currently funded to the Division of Preventive Medicine. These studies include both observational studies and randomized clinical trials, and associated plasma and DMA banks. These resources will provide significant opportunities for trainees to meld the practical research techniques of large-scale epidemiology with emerging molecular and genetic approaches. As demonstrated by the excellent productivity and research independence achieved by our past trainees, we are confident that funding of this competing renewal will continue to successfully prepare future academic leaders in the fields of cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention. (END OF ABSTRACT)